Will paint peel if I only paint firewall? Should I wait to paint whole cab?

Pulled my motor, had it rebuilt, ready to drop back in. What is holding me back is I'm painting the truck a different color. I can access the firewall much better with engine out. But I'm ready to put motor back in, but not ready to paint cab. Should I...
Paint firewall without painting cab? I could tape it off with no problems hiding tape line.
Or wait until I shoot the cab and firewall all together?
I have been a little worried about the clear coat edge peeling.

67Mustang Al.

07-04-2012 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsm1847
(Post 1570735)

Pulled my motor, had it rebuilt, ready to drop back in. What is holding me back is I'm painting the truck a different color. I can access the firewall much better with engine out. But I'm ready to put motor back in, but not ready to paint cab. Should I...
Paint firewall without painting cab? I could tape it off with no problems hiding tape line.
Or wait until I shoot the cab and firewall all together?
I have been a little worried about the clear coat edge peeling.

Personally i would do it while you have the engine out. I would not have been able to spray the firewall on my 67 as the rear of the engine is too close to the firewall. I dont know how much room you have, but i just taped my engine bay separating the top cowl. I had a drip rail separating the engine bay from the cowl. You may not have this .?? If you dont have a point of separation then you will just blend the two making sure to prep the overlap when you spray out the top.:thumbup:
Al.

swvalcon

07-04-2012 07:13 AM

Depends a lot on what color you plan to put on it. Soild or metalic. What year is the truck? If where me I would pull the box, remove the front clip and cab from the frame. Prep cab and repaint it off the truck then reinstall and paint box and fenders and put them back on.

MARTINSR

07-04-2012 08:21 AM

"Peeling" is NOT your problem, if prepped properly there is going to be ZERO problem with anything like that. You simply paint it around the edge hopefully to hard edge somewhere, you would have to post a photo of your firewall to get a good idea. But there is NO problem what so ever with "peeling".

The only thing you really need to worry about has been brought up, that would be color. If you were to buy a pint or quart of paint today and paint your fire wall and then down the road months prep the truck and buy a gallon of paint to shoot it, the firewall will likely be a little different color.

That is really the only problem you will have. If you were to plan to shoot your truck real soon, go ahead and buy all your paint and use a little to shoot the fire wall that would help the situation greatly, though as mentioned if we are talking a metallic color the color still could be off some, but his all depends on your expectations of the finished product. If you are after perfection, it may not make it. If you are after a real nice job but if that firewall were off a tiny bit you are ok with it, you have a good plan.

Post a photo of the firewall where it wraps around the edge, let us see where you could break the color.

If you were to break it right at the edge by painting to the second fold around the corner then when you paint the outside paint up to that edge with a little back tape to soften the edge and clear out to the first edge it could be pulled off where it is hardly seen at all. I tried my might to add this info on the photo it's self but my software isn't working with me this morning.

Brian

jsm1847

07-04-2012 08:57 AM

There definitely is a place to tape off, where line can be hid. I am planning on buying all the paint I need at once, so color should be the same. I do understand sometimes color may not be EXACT depending on shooting environment...ect, but the change in direction should hide that very well (cab is horizontal, firewall perpendicular). Prep should be fine, like I said, was just worried bout meeting the clear together. I think I'll go a solid, errrrr or a metallic, or ........ I don't even know yet!

MARTINSR

07-04-2012 09:01 AM

If you "Back tape" as in this photo when you shoot the color on the outside of the cab at the line I show in my last post, it can be made pretty hidden if not completely. "Back taping" is when you don't lay the tape down flat creating a hard line. You roll it or you use a foam aperture tape which is a 1/2" or so foam tape. What this does is provides a soft edge of paint that you can clear over. It isn't quite this simply it would take a little practice to dust paint at this area so you don't end up with a hard line but it can be pretty effective.

Thanks for the reply Brian. I shouldn't have a problem blending color, or clear. With a soft edge. Rolling tape back, to dust it in. I just thought it might be better to do it all at once. Since the pros say it's ok, I'm gonna shoot firewall, install motor, then work on cab and such!

jsm1847

07-04-2012 02:46 PM

Thanks to other posters as well! My wife asks me what I'm doing, and I say talking to my buddies on forum. Thanks!

CQNRQY

07-04-2012 02:48 PM

I dont see any problem here...
Bodyshops rarely paint complete vehicles.
Fenders doors or part panels are painted without the rest of the vehicle all the time.
Blending is common practice as is breaking the paint line at an edge as has been sugested already...
The color match my be the bigger problem although in this case I doubt anyone would notice the transition from firewall ( under the hood ) to outerbody colour...
Good luck :thumbup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsm1847
(Post 1570735)

Pulled my motor, had it rebuilt, ready to drop back in. What is holding me back is I'm painting the truck a different color. I can access the firewall much better with engine out. But I'm ready to put motor back in, but not ready to paint cab. Should I...
Paint firewall without painting cab? I could tape it off with no problems hiding tape line.
Or wait until I shoot the cab and firewall all together?
I have been a little worried about the clear coat edge peeling.

deadbodyman

07-10-2012 06:28 AM

Some good suggestions .as an added precaution use a little adheasion promoter like bulldog or duponts 222 around the edge,the stuff works great